City council passes deer feeding ordinance on first reading

Havre City Council Monday unanimously passed on first reading Monday a resolution making feeding deer in the city illegal.

The ordinance will have its second reading at the council’s meeting in January and will take effect 30 days later if passed then.

The council has been discussing the issue for several months, and the ordinance was proposed just to raise awareness and set some regulations.

Feeding wildlife already is against state law, but government officials said in past meetings that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks doesn’t have the time, staff or resources to patrol Havre to enforce it.

Havre Mayor Tim Solomon said he has talked FWP to talk about how to try to control the problem. He said some suggestions were to have people raise bird and squirrel feeders so deer cannot access them and trying to keep deer out of gardens, low-hanging apple trees, and so on.

“People are feeding them by not knowing it, through gardens and bird feeders,” Solomon said.

The council also unanimously approved of the updated Havre policies and procedural manual.

“We have a manual for all city employees, and we just did some updates in it,” Solomon said in an interview before the meeting. “Every few years, we have to update it to what we’re actually doing. So it’s just a few little things that have changed and gone through on it.”

The confirmation of a new probationary police officer was removed from the agenda because the applicant had taken a position elsewhere.

The board also unanimously approved re-appointing Chase Stoner to the Havre-Hill County Airport Board.